Why questions don't get answered, or "No, I've already RTFM, tell me the answer!"

[jdow]

From: "Kam Leo" <kam.leo at gmail.com>

> On 12/28/05, Ow Mun Heng <Ow.Mun.Heng at wdc.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, 2005-12-28 at 19:58 -0800, Charles Heselton wrote:
>>
>> > > [mailto:fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Charles Howse
>>
>>
>> > *Most* people answer, if they know.  Or
>> > point if they can.  What I've found, is that at least 2 out of 3
>> > times, when I go to google someone's problem, the answer is usually
>> > in the top 10 links found.  For people that are particularly active
>> > on lists, this can be frustrating.
>>
>> yes. This is very true. And bear in mind that perhaps as much/as less as
>> 50% of people in this list actually do take the time to solve the issues
>> for you. They're not support staff but they do it out of wanting to
>> help.
>>
>> The manner in this the question is asked is also pertinent to getting
>> some answers. eg: They would have liked for the OP to at least have
>> researched the question by themselves (no spoon feed) with a min of
>> google (though of course the sequence/choice of search parameters will
>> make/break the query) and perhaps some archive searching. (eg: like me,
>> I have like 2 years worth of List archive which I consult before
>> shooting an email to the list. That and the fact that I don't have I-net
>> access at work, (only email ), so I make that clear as well.)
>>
>>
>> That's my 2 cents.
>>
> 
> Much of this bashing would be alleviated if Red Hat, a publically held
> and for-profit company, put some real effort into incorporating a
> decent search engine for the archives.

Rumor has it that Google will search into the archives. Experience
bears out the rumors. (People who can tolerate Bugzilla also cite
using Google as a surrogate search engine for Bugzilla. That might
make that horrid, ugly, annoying tool (I'm being kind) almost
bearable, too.)

{^_-}